social security COLA

Just two weeks before the economy-threatening "fiscal cliff" is due to kick in, both President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner are making significant concessions to each other, backing off what had once been ironclad positions on how to avoid the huge automatic spending cuts and tax increases.

House Republicans on Monday proposed a new 10-year, $2.2 trillion blueprint to President Barack Obama that calls for increasing the eligibility age for Medicare and lowering cost-of-living hikes for Social Security benefits.

More than 56 million Social Security recipients will see their monthly payments go up by 1.7% next year, one of the smallest increases since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. The cost-of-living adjustment is linked to inflation, which has been relatively low over the past year.